DEFEATING THE MONSTER WITHIN (part one)

We found him in the high grass and marsh behind a low income housing development near Norfolk Naval Base. He wasn’t wearing a shirt or shoes and carried no identification. His upper torso was covered in abrasions with tiny bits of sand and gravel pressed into his stiffened flesh; tire tracks in the marsh left measurable impressions and lent credence to the assumption that the victim had either been thrown from or ran over by the vehicle that had left the tracks. Despite the obvious evidence the actual cause and manner of death was still unknown, as was the identity of the victim. The following day the medical examiner reported to us that what appeared to be a hole made by a piece of gravel was actually a fatal .22 caliber bullet wound. That same day the missing persons report came in and the victim was identified.

My forensic partner and I headed to the victim’s apartment in Virginia Beach to search for evidence. What we found was a man who had been consumed by the MONSTER WITHIN.

Trash, pornographic materials, beer cans and drug paraphernalia litter the floors, tables and countertops, yet under it all one could see the man had a respectable side. It was as if the he had lost control and went on a binge.

Evidence revealed the victim had been a manager at a local KFC and a choir director for fifth graders at a very prominent church in Norfolk. It was also apparent that he had grown up around a substance abuser and had struggled with substance abuse himself. Evidence obtained from his home answering machine indicated ties to Norfolk’s crack dealing underworld. On the night of his murder he had lost control and gone in search of crack cocaine in the Ocean View section of the city. It was at the front door of crack dealer’s hotel room that the victim was shot to death and robbed.

The MONSTER WITHIN had claimed yet another victim.


We’ve all got one you know: A MONSTER WITHIN. The Bible calls it our “flesh” or “sin-nature,” and even goes so far as to say we can be controlled by it:

Romans 8:8
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

Bryan and Kathryn Harvey were well known in the Richmond area. He was a successful musician. She was the owner of a gift and toy shop.

Operative word: "was."

On New Year’s Day this year, Bryan, Kathryn and their two daughters Ruby (9) and Stella (4) were found in their burning home with their hands bound and their throats slit. What kind of monster would do such a thing?

The police arrested Ricky Gray and Ray Dandridge in Philadelphia; chances are, they’ll get the death penalty. Chalk up two more victims to the MONSTER WITHIN.

On Labor Day, 2005, Taylor Behl, a seventeen year old VCU student left her dorm at 10:30 in the evening. Police her found her a month later in a shallow grave behind a Mathews County barn. This week a Mathews Grand Jury indicted thirty- year old Benjamin Fawley on first degree murder charges. The MONSTER wins again.

Last November eighteen year old David Borden took his fourteen year old girlfriend Kara Borden on a weekend rendezvous. When Kara’s dad demanded an explanation, David showed up with bullets. Although he professed to be a Christian and even started his own youth Bible study, the MONSTER WITHIN won the day. David killed both of Kara’s parents and fled the state only to be arrested a short time later in Indiana. An article from Crimelibrary.com made the following assertion concerning David and Kara:

.... it's possible that one or both actually believed the Christian doctrines they were taught while yielding to the demands of physical connection so strong that more worldly concerns dominated.

Get that? They may have believed Christian doctrine, yet they yielded to worldly passions. Sounds like an unseen battle may have been raging.

These types of horror stories happen everywhere, every day.

A seemingly normal neighbor is determined to have six bodies in his basement. Everyone acts so surprised, “He was such a nice guy,” they say.

The sweet lady at church drowns her kids in a bathtub.

An old man gets upset at his church so he dumps arsenic in the coffee. Several parishioners die.

A well known international ministry comes tumbling down in front of the whole world because the great man of God behind it all couldn’t control the MONSTER WITHIN.

He was a Rhodes scholar, a lawyer, a governor, and he attained the highest ruling post in the human realm-President of the United States of America, yet we snicker when we hear his name. The MONSTER WITHIN devoured his legacy in a moment of uncontrolled lasciviousness.

You aren’t snickering are you?

You have one too, ya know?

A MONSTER WITHIN that craves wickedness.

The MONSTER surfaces early in life.


A toddler breaks grandma’s favorite vase in front of every one. But under interrogation she denies the charges- slowly turning her head left to right lying before she’s old enough to know what a lie is.

Monster seeds.

The ten year old knows its wrong but his eyes consume the pornography like a puppy lapping anti-freeze.

The monster grows.

The teenage sweetheart tosses the latest issue of Cosmopolitan on the bed and swallows another Prozac, confident that she’ll never measure up.

The monster roars.

The father of three crashes the minivan after a night of drinking away his stress. Who would have thought that first beer so many years ago would land him in the headlines and another driver in the grave?

The monster wins.

But does he have to? Do we have a choice?

Stay tuned for part two.